It’s summer. Which means it’s time for strawberries and a cheeky splash of Pimm’s. This year I decided to combine these flavours into a super-tasty tart, adding in all the other usual Pimm’s suspects – sliced cucumber, orange and mint leaves – along with some golden flaky pastry and a zesty vanilla mascarpone cream. I think I might just be on to a winner!
Strawberry and Pimm’s summer tart
With a big enough crowd you’ll probably eat this double-decker tart within an hour, but if you pop the leftovers in the fridge they will last for a day or two.
Prep 45 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 14
2 x 320g sheets ready-rolled, all butter puff pastry
4 tbsp icing sugar
For the cream
150g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
750g mascarpone
500ml double cream
2 tbsp vanilla extract
3 limes, zest finely grated
For the topping
100ml Pimm’s
60g golden caster sugar
600g strawberries, trimmed and quartered or sliced
4 oranges, skin removed and sliced into rounds
1 cucumber, rinsed
1 handful mint leaves
Start with the topping. Mix the Pimm’s and golden caster sugar in a bowl and stir in the fruit. Use a vegetable peeler to pare the cucumber into strips lengthways and add to the bowl. Cover and leave in the fridge to infuse until ready to use.
Meanwhile heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Unroll one of the pastry sheets on to a large baking tray lined with baking paper, dust with two tablespoons of icing sugar, then cover with another sheet of paper. Put another large baking tray on top, and fill with baking beans to weigh it down. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown, then set aside. Repeat this process with the second sheet of pastry and the remaining two tablespoons of icing sugar. Once both pastry sheets are cooked, trim the edges with a sharp knife and leave to cool.
Lightly whisk together all the ingredients for the cream, reserving a little of the lime zest to decorate the top of the tart. Scoop half of the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle (or if you don’t have a nozzle, just snip the end of the piping bag).
Pipe even blobs of the cream over one sheet of pastry, going right to the edges. Top with half the Pimm’s-soaked fruit, then dust with a little more icing sugar. Put the second sheet of pastry directly on top.
Refill the piping bag with the remaining cream and repeat the process, piping blobs of cream all over the second sheet. Finish the tart by topping it with the remaining fruit and scattering with the mint leaves and reserved lime zest.
